


Bright Lights, Big City

by dramady



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-04
Updated: 2010-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-08 17:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramady/pseuds/dramady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one expected much of Tim Riggins</p><p>(takes place in season three, hypothesizing what might happen BEFORE season 4 aired)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Lights, Big City

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, non-commercial work of fiction using the names and likenesses of fictional individuals. This fictional story is not intended to imply that the events herein actually occurred, or that the attitudes or behaviors described are engaged in or condoned the characters whose names are used without permission.

No one expected Tim to stay at San Antonio State very long, not really.

So it wasn't a big surprise when his truck rolled through town right at the end of the college football season.

He didn't even bother finishing the semester. Shame, that. He had a scholarship and everything.

Oh, sure, Billy gave him hell about it, too, when he strode into the house like he still lived there. Of course, Mindy started scream bloody murder, but Tim did what he always did and ignored her, slamming the door of his old bedroom right in her face. That just made her start screaming at Billy. He started shouting back.

Nothing new, not really. (Not that anybody expected Billy and Mindy to stay together. Fight like cats and dogs, those two.)

A few days later, Tim started showing up at Riggins Auto Repair and soon after that, he was up under the hood of most the cars that showed up. That was during the day. At night, he'd sit outside the shop on an old kitchen chair with bent metal legs and he'd drink beer.

No one was surprised. Anyone passing on the highway would wave and he'd lift his arm in greeting, his hair hanging in his face like it always did, grease still coating his hands, spackling them black.

A few people were surprised when Jason Street came home for Christmas. A whole year in the Big City. We'd heard a few things from his mama, sure, how he was making it big in New York, how he and Erin were doing good, how big the baby was getting, all that. But there he was, off the plane in Austin and back in Dillon for the holidays, no baby, no wife, or fiance or whatever that girl was. That was curious.

It was a little curious, though, not much, when Tim didn't go to work the day after Jason arrived back in Dillon. Not that there was a lot of call for car repair in the few days right before Christmas, but some people really had hoped that Tim would be a help to Billy, since the business wasn't doing great and that baby was due to arrive any day.

But then again, it was Tim Riggins, after all. No one ever expected that much from him.

Somebody later that day said they saw Tim's truck ride through town with Jason in the passenger seat. Somebody else said they saw Tim buy a six pack at the corner liquor store out there on the highway. Ole Bobby Lindon said he saw the truck out by the lake, but Bobby'd been drinking pretty good by that time, so he could've seen a Sasquatch and none of us would've believed him.

But Tim's truck was parked in the Street's driveway on Christmas day. JoAnn and Mitchell were always real good to that boy. Good Christian people. And it was after dark when the truck left, so no telling where Tim was headed.

New Year's Eve and Tim wasn't at any of the bars you'd expect to find him, but his truck wasn't in front of the Riggins' house either. Not that we were spying, because we weren't. It's a small town, see. You notice things. Like you notice how it was Tim who took Jason back to the airport on the second. We saw them driving out of town that morning. Good ole Jason Street, headed back to New York City to make it big. We always did expect great things from Jason. Wasn't like him to let something like paralysis get him down. You know how rare it is that they can have kids, those crippled? Now, it would've been nice if he'd married her, but what can you do. Kids today.

So, Tim came back into town after dropping Jason off and that old truck was parked at home for a day or two.

Then the most curious thing. On the fourth of January, he packed his truck up again, all the stuff he'd brought home, all tossed right back into the back of his truck again and just like that he took off.

The next day, Billy was out front of Riggin's Auto Repair crowing about how Tim was going to make it this time, how he was giving college a real try, how he just needed a good kick in the pants.

Boy's been kicked in the pants more than any of us can remember, but that was neither here nor there. But we were surprised, that was for certain. That he even went back.

So, Tim Riggins went back to school; they must've let him back in, maybe on that academic probation or some such? And next we hear a good week later that Jason Street did propose to the Erin girl and was going to get married. Even in that chair, we took bets that he'd look right handsome in a tuxedo.

The wedding was in April and we got some pictures to show around and saw the notice in the paper. Too bad it couldn't be back here in Dillon, what with the Methodist Church just being made for that kind of thing. But JoAnn had a lot of pictures. The little boy, Noah, was growing up, too, sitting there on Jason's lap in the pictures with a cute little old smile on his face and a little bow tie on and everything. Looked real nice from what we could tell.

When Tim didn't come home at the end of that Spring semester, we were curious. But then, Billy was going on and on about how he was taking classes to get ahead for the next football season, then he was going on and on about his baby, well, slowly, people kind of just stopped waiting for Tim to show up.

Maybe he was going to make something of himself after all.

Made us wonder, though, what happened that Christmas when Jason came home. Those two always had been close.

Jason didn't come home much either. Turned out it was JoAnn and Mitch who had to go out to New York to see the grandson; cost of living is higher out there, you know.

Good kids, really, that Jason Street, and Tim Riggins. Tim had a rough go of it early, Jason had a rough go of it after that accident. Maybe Jason whipped Tim into shape again. Don't really know. Curious, though, isn't it?


End file.
